Auto Suggestions are available once you type at least 3 letters. Use up arrow (for mozilla firefox browser alt+up arrow) and down arrow (for mozilla firefox browser alt+down arrow) to review and enter to select.

Overview

"I used to be one of those girls. The kind who loved to deliver bad news. When I colored my hair, I imagined it seeping into my scalp, black dye pooling into my veins.But that was the old Lacy. Now, when I cast spells, they are always for good."16-year-old Lacy believes that magic and science can work side by side. She's a botanist who knows how to harness the healing power of plants. So when her father dies, Lacy tries to stay with her step-mother in Chico, where her magic is good and healing. She fears the darkness that her real mother, Cheyenne, brings out, stripping away everything that is light and kind.Yet Cheyenne never stays away for long. Beautiful, bewitching, unstable Cheyenne who will stop at nothing, not even black magic, to keep control of her daughter's heart. She forces Lacy to accompany her to Sacramento, and before long, the "old" Lacy starts to resurface.But when Lacy survives a traumatic encounter, she finds herself faced with a choice. Will she use her powers to exact revenge and spiral into the darkness forever? Or will she find the strength to embrace the light?

Product Details

About the Author

Tricia Stirling earned her M.A. in creative writing and has been published in Literary Mama, The Angler, and Syntax. She lives in Sacramento, California, with her family. WHEN MY HEART WAS WICKED is Tricia's first novel.

Read an Excerpt

I used to be one of those girls. The kind who loved to deliver bad news. I stole my stepmother's lipstick and mashed it up to make fake potions that I fed to my dolls. I put sugar syrup in her perfume so she'd be followed by bees and wasps. When I colored my hair, I imagined it seeping into my scalp, black dye pooling into my veins. If I could, I would've scribbled black all over my face, like I used to do to pretty girls in my picture books. Princesses with scraped-out eyes. But that was the old Lacy. Now, when I cast spells, they are always for good.

Editorial Reviews

12/08/2014Is Lacy Fin a witch or not? Midway through her junior year of high school, this question isn’t on her radar. Her father has just died, and she is bracing to return to school under the gentle aegis of her stepmother, Anna. No sooner does Lacy negotiate the potential land mines of a first day back than Cheyenne, her birth mother, reappears three years after abandoning Lacy, demanding custody again. Memories quickly resurface—of strange “dreams,” spell-casting, confusion, and suffering. Fearing the rage and hate that marked her earlier life, Lacy tries to make space for “the light” she learned from her stepmother, but Cheyenne’s erratic, domineering behavior leaves Lacy questioning everything. Compact and intense, it’s a bravura examination of neglect, abuse, and survival, though first-time novelist Stirling struggles to resolve the “and then she woke up” moment. The shift in register is softened by her choice to forgo a conventional plot arc, and even if the ending is slightly off-key, the accomplishment of the story as a whole is impressive. Ages 14–up. Agent: Molly Ker Hawn, Bent Agency. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

2014-11-04A mix of the mundane and the magical permeates this slender portrait of a girl in pain. After a childhood bouncing between her mother, possibly a witch and probably unstable, and her father, whose presence made it possible for Lacy to see magic and beauty everywhere, Lacy's mother, Cheyenne, disappeared. Her mother's influence gone, Lacy's darkness blossomed into light and kindness. But her father has died, and although stepmother Anna wants to keep her, Cheyenne returns to drag Lacy back to Sacramento. Lacy narrates in lush, almost magical prose: "Smoke billows out and bits of glowing ember consume the creases of the paper like growing things, red mushrooms in a sped-up video." This lyricism exists side by side with gritty realism: slut-shaming and mean girls, childhood abuse suffered by classmate Martin, and the nonstop emotional and physical neglect and abuse Lacy endures from her own mother. Sometimes horrifying and sometimes charming, this is a powerful if uneven novel. Lacy sees herself as a battleground between light and dark, and she must find her own way even as she deals with levels of grief and pain she's almost unable to face; readers may be left uncomfortable when that way seems to forgive her mother, but they will rejoice in the confirmation that we are what we make ourselves, regardless of the darkness that surrounds. Unexpected, uncanny, unforgettable. (Magical realism. 14 & up)

Kirkus Reviews

11/01/2014Gr 9 Up—Debut novelist Stirling has written a delightfully dark and twisty story for those who never quite outgrew fairy tales. Removed from the custody of her abusive, dysfunctional mother when she was 13 years old, Lacy has spent the past three years with her loving father and free-spirited stepmother. But following the death of her father to prostate cancer, her mother, Cheyenne, insists that Lacy leaves her stepmother's home in Chico and moves to Sacramento with her. Adding to the stress of going to a new school and making new friends, Lacy grows increasingly aware that something is very wrong with her mother and that she, herself, is being pulled into darkness. This enigmatic novel will keep readers guessing from the first page to the last. Are there supernatural forces at work or is Cheyenne delusional and psychotic? Does Lacy have the ability to cause the accident that put her would-be seducer in the hospital or was he just drinking too much that night? Was Lacy's heartlessness actual or metaphysical? No clear answers will frustrate and delight readers. Stirling is an author to watch.—Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

**Thank you so much to Scholastic for allowing me to read a copy of this in exchange for an honest review!**
Lacy lives with her step mom in Chico after her mother mysteriously disappeared right now. She was home alone for a few days while her mom was off who-knows-where, so she called her dad and step mom and went and lived with them for a while. Originally, she hated her step mother and even did everything that she could just to spite her, but eventually she ended up adoring her, even after her father died.
A few years later, her mother turns up again out of the blue and says that she's taking Lacy back home to Sacramento, even though she's come to love her life in Chico. She even made friends and was starting to do well in school. Why would she ever want to leave? Sadly, there's no way at all for her to stay, so she has to go back home.
For some reason, whenever she's with her mother, Lacy finds herself becoming more and more like her. When she was with her step mom, she was really nice and sweet, but now that her mom's back, she's finding herself doing things that she regrets all the time because it's not something she'd usually do. Why is this all happening? Read the story to find out!
My favorite thing about this book would have to be its originality. It was unlike anything that I've ever read before. I absolutely love the whole botany side to this story as well. I've always been interested in learning about botany and this book definitely helped with that! The main protagonist, Lacy, was a huge botanist. She believed that some of the plants could help with healing and stuff, which was really awesome.
I felt so bad for Lacy at times. I could tell that she really was a good person all the time underneath, but something about her mom made her behave in ways that she hated so much. She was in a battle against herself somehow. It's like Lacy believed that her mom brought out a darkness in her, so she made it come true. At times like that, I just wanted to give her a huge hug and tell her everything was going to be alright in the end.
This book also taught be a lot about science, surprisingly! Lacy, on top of botany, is really into chemistry, and every once in a while there'd be a whole paragraph or two about chem, which I found to be pretty cool. It's not often that I read a book and actually learn something educational! I'm definitely going to be picking up anything else that Tricia Stirling writes in the future!

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

i loved this book. the author made the characters real kids will recognize the struggle the main character has with loyalty and becoming who she knows she can be.

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

Loved it!!!!

Reading-is-My-Treasure

More than 1 year ago

I have almost zero reaction to When My Heart Was Wicked. I didn't connect to the characters or the story or ANYTHING, yet I kept reading because I didn't want to DNF such a short book. What I can say, though, is that I felt confused and disconnected. There didn't seem to be enough development, and attempts at development didn't work well for me. The magic was . . . weird. There didn't seem to be much of it (at least, much of anything really interesting) and the bits that were there confused me. Lacy didn't seem to change that much--or, at least, not become as dark as I thought she was going to become. The book was just a letdown. When I finished, I wondered what the point of it was, which is the biggest reason I gave this book only one star.
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Lizzie is the busiest, buzziest bee in Hivetown! David Shannon's vivid artwork and Lizzie's endearing
efforts to do it all will make children laugh aloud at her frantic antics as she juggles school, multiple sports, dance, violin, and art. With ...

In book three of the Burning Bastards MC: Charlie walked away, giving Selma the freedom
to follow her dreams, but finds himself paying the price for the decision. When the opportunity arises for him to step back in, he jumps ...

So going to sleep is not just for you.Everything, everywhere goes to sleep too!In the
tradition of soothing bedtime books like Goodnight Moon, this original new offering from Sandra Magsamen is perfect for snuggling up and showing your sleepyhead that ...

Fuzzy has a great new plan as the Adventure Director of the Class Pets Club
-- the pets are going to join the Halloween Parade with their kids! In disguises, of course. Finally, they won't be missing all the fun!But ...

Heart Nectar is a standalone book in the Hearts of Braden series- book 5. Mindie
and Nixie own a successful winery in the charming town of Braden, Iowa. Young and ambitious, romance is the only element missing from their successful ...

A new search-and-find fold-out adventure from bestselling photographer/author Walter Wick in this oversized gift book!A
new and exciting page-turning, lift-the-flap, search-and-find extravaganza by Walter Wick!Curious seekers will expand the fun as they lift up the pages to discover that something ...

No grizzly has ever killed a human in Glacier before . . . until tonight.
Eleven-year-old Melody Vega and her family come to Glacier National Park every year, and it's always been a place where she can forget her troubles. ...

I love everything that you do. I'm simply WILD about you!With innovative touchable felt pieces
on the cover and engaging and unique artwork on the inside, babies and toddlers will love holding, touching, and reading Sandra Magsamen's Heart-felt Books! This ...